Stephan:   Thanks to the Republican Party -- to the three readers who wrote me this morning asking why I don't like the Republican Party, here is one part of my answer -- the food stamp program was gutted. It made hunger in the U.S. an even bigger crisis than usual. The hunger didn't go away of course, when the cretins of Congress cut off Federal support. It just transferred to the charities that have tried to fill the gap, as this report describes. The great irony here is that poor Whites in Red value states voted in the congresspeople who then legislated the policies that are making other poor White lives miserable. Most food stamp recipients are low income Whites. It is another example of the triumph of fear and hate politics funded by special interest groups seeking to manipulate those low-information voters who mostly watch Fox News and listen to Rightwing radio. As a marketing strategy it has proven incredibly successful, as a generator of public policies that create wellness, however, the Republican approach is a disaster. This is an objectively verifiable fact.